


Medusa.

by RussianSunflower3



Series: Winter and December and Christmas, Oh My! [24]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Presents, The old age lesbian curse of being unable to wrap presents, Yachi's mother is trying to make up for where she's gone wrong in the past, winter prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-19 12:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13123872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RussianSunflower3/pseuds/RussianSunflower3
Summary: Yachi Hitoka has the lesbian curse.She justcan'twrap presents, no matter how hard she tries. It always ends up looking a mess, falling apart, or ripping before she's done.Her plight wakes her mother, and it's time to find out which is stronger;Years of practice and plenty of knowledge? Or a 'curse' that may just be some LGB+ coincidence.





	Medusa.

For the life of her, Yachi could not wrap presents. She could draw, she could sing, she could even hula hoop whilst hopping on one foot! But she couldn’t wrap presents.

So here she was, at 4am Christmas Eve, lying face down on her floor on the verge of sobbing and cursing the existence of wrapping paper, tape, and oddly shaped presents. How was she supposed to wrap a volleyball designed candle for Kageyama?! Why did she get Tsukishima cake in a prism shaped box?!

 _HOW ON EARTH DOES ONE WRAP A MEDUSA BUST STATUE?!_?! That one was for Yamaguchi, since he’d suddenly become interested in Greek mythology. As excited as she’d been to buy it for him, she was cursing her decision as she sobbed into the carpet, a lone piece of torn wrapping paper resting on Medusa’s head. Snakes. Hair? Whatever it was classed as.

Hinata’s had been simple, luckily. She’d had a gift bag just perfect for the limited edition Ramune set with famous volleyball players on. A couple of layers of tissue paper scrunched up and put on top was all it really needed.

It hadn’t even been that difficult to do the rest of the team either! Daichi, Suga, and Asahi had boxes of chocolates, so she’d just put a large sticky bow on top of them. Tanaka and Noya had matching walkie talkies and batteries, but she’d managed to put them in a box each.

Ennoshita was being a little bit spoilt this Christmas, since she’d struggled to find him a gift until she’d seen a vintage camera in the antiques shop window. Again, it came in a box. 

Kinoshita and Narita had sweaters that appeared identical, until they reacted to body temperature. Kinoshita’s would go blue, and Narita’s would go red. It seemed ideal for the two who kept swapping their volleyball jerseys.

As for Kiyoko, a silver pendant with her birthstone in and a book about two girls falling slowly in love might be sappy, and Yachi worried her gay little heart that Kiyoko might not like it, or it might be too forwards, but at least that _also_ came in a box and book shape, easy to wrap.

Not like a prism cake box, spherical candle, or _Medusa_. She folded her arms across her face and wailed, muffling it with her pyjama sleeves. But apparently, not muffled enough.

“Hitoka, sweetheart, what _are_ you doing?” She lifts her head with tear filled eyes and hiccups through her wobbling frown, trying not to wail in front of her mother, who stands tiredly in the bedroom doorway, fighting back a yawn.

“I’m cursed… I have the lesbian curse…”

“... Curse?” Madoka raises an eyebrow, folding her arms as her emotional daughter sobs and wipes at her watery eyes.

“I c-can’t wrap preseeeeents!” With a sigh, as Yachi buries her head back in her arms, Madoka moves to kneel next to her, patting her back with one hand and picking up the volleyball candle with the other.

“Well… You have got some awkwards shapes here. The triangle should be easy enough though, that’s easy to-...” She cuts herself off. Recently, she’s been working on how she phrases things, understanding that maybe what she said was too stern or insensitive for her very, _very_ sensitive daughter. 

It was almost embarrassing that it took her so long, and Yachi standing up to her, for her to realise.

“... Show me how you do it. I’ve done this for years, so I can help you.” Hiccuping, Yachi looks up at her mother in awe, then nods with an attempt at a smile. It ends up a snotty, quivering grin, but Madoka shakes her head in amusement all the same.

“Clean yourself up first~.”

“M-Mhm!” Scrambling to get a tissue from the box on her desk, Yachi steps on the wrapping paper and gets tape stuck to her foot. She’s a _disaster_ when it comes to wrapping. The lesbian curse indeed.

“ _Careful_ , Hitoka.”

“S-Sorry!” Madoka huffs a quiet laugh under her breath, checking how many rolls of wrapping paper Yachi has. 3. That should be enough… Right? A glance at the pile of torn, crumpled, failed wrappings has her suddenly doubting it. Especially when she glances at the medusa head. That might take a _lot_ of practice.

“I’m ready! Please teach me!” Full of youthful energy, Yachi plonks herself back down on the floor in front of her mother, who unrolls some of the wrapping paper designed like fir tree branches.

“First, we measure out what we need. Do you have some measuring tape?” Yachi looks at her mother dumbfounded, the volleyball candle in her hands and she motions rolling it over as if measuring it that way. It’s what she’s tried every year, and what everyone else seems to do.

Madoka gently pinches Yachi’s nose and then flicks her forehead.

“Measuring tape. Go.” As the teenager runs off to find the measuring tape, Madoka sneakily ‘measures’ it by doing what she told Yachi _not_ to do. It’s just so she has an idea of what it should measure, because she wants her daughter to accomplish this by herself.

… Although, considering Hitoka has admitted that sometimes it was upsetting and lonely always doing things by herself… But Madoka’s own mother had been completely overbearing and smothering and- and-... 

Madoka just wanted to give her daughter independance… She was only recently learning that things always had a grey area. It didn’t _have_ to be one or the other.

“I got it mom, I got it!”

2 hours and 45 minutes. It takes _2 hours and 45 minutes_ until the two exhausted girls are lying face down on the bedroom floor, Madoka’s arm across Yachi’s back comfortingly. Volleyball candle? Easy peasy. Prism shaped cake box? It had taken a couple of attempts, plenty of fumbling, and some torn sheets, but Yachi had caught on in due time.

The Medusa bust? That one had even _Madoka_ beat, and she’d been wrapping presents since before her daughter was even born!

“I have to go to work in a moment… And you have school.” Yachi whines distressingly into the floorboards.

“I’m so sorryyyyy! I didn’t mean to wake you up, I’m sorry!” Madoka is about to sigh and push herself up from the floor, about to tell Yachi that it doesn’t matter, she’s pulled all-nighters before, especially at Christmas-... But then she hears a hiccuped sob.

Yachi is _distraught_ at having woken her mother at 4 in the morning, on a work day, and wasted her time with a wrapping project that didn’t even have a successful end. She chokes back another sob, waiting for her mother to leave so she can cry in guilt, but then, a hand strokes through her hair.

She looks up with watery eyes to see Madoka’s soft smile, a warm, loving smile from a mother who’s usually only cold and distant.

“Why don’t we have a ‘sick’ day, hmm? We can have hot chocolates, do each others hair and nails, some arts and crafts… Like we used to. Sound good?” Yachi nods, a little stunned, but the overwhelming happiness hits her a second later and she bursts into a grin, sparkling like a diamond, hugging her mother tightly.

“Yes!!! Yes, yes, yes! It sounds really good! I missed doing that kind of stuff!” Madoka is caught off guard at first, but melts into the hug, wrapping her arms around her daughter lovingly.

“Okay, Hitoka. We’ll do that~.” Yachi goes to excitedly babble something back, a whole _list_ of things they could do, but it’s interrupted by a yawn, and the warmth of the hug is just so relaxing and comfortable and _sooooooft_...

“... Hitoka?” Madoka feels Yachi drift off to sleep in her arms, and rolls her eyes. Her tiny smile betrays the happiness she feels at that instance though. Carefully, she lifts Yachi up and carries her into bed, tucking her under the covers and running a hand through her hair, kissing her forehead.

“We’ll have a mother-daughter day after a nap. Sleep well, sweetheart.”

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas!!!!! Or Ficmas, whichever you prefer!  
> I have the lesbian curse. I cannot wrap presents. Time for gift boxes!
> 
> Please Kudos/Comment!  
> I know some of you are out there, I'm avoiding family too.


End file.
